Another List Thread (Discourse = One Paddlin')

[LemonMelon]

Top 10 depressing albums that inadvertently make me feel better after I finish listening to them:

1. Joni Mitchell - Blue
2. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
3. Arcade Fire - Funeral
4. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
5. Tom Waits - Closing Time
6. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
7. U2 - Achtung Baby
8. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee
9. Elliott Smith - Either/Or
10. Love - Forever Changes

 

[lazarus]

Pet Sounds is depressing?

 

[cobl04]

OK Computer is one of your fav albums of all time no? That shit's depressing as fuck.

 

[LemonMelon]

Pet Sounds is depressing?

I think so. I figure that's why it flopped when it came out. Here Today, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times and Caroline No are overtly depressing, plus themes of romantic uncertainty and insecurity are all over the album. Even God Only Knows has a sense of pessimism about it. It's one of the most personal albums I can think of.

And hey, this guy on the internet agrees with me!

The most depressing albums ever recorded(Part 1)

OK Computer is one of your fav albums of all time no? That shit's depressing as fuck.

Yeah, but I still feel like shit when it's over. There's some catharsis right at the very end, but...

 

[cobl04]

There's a great lyric from Kurt Vile's album that talks about that. "Feeling bad... In the best way..."

 

[LemonMelon]

I picked Achtung for U2, but ATYCLB could work as well. If there's one thing I really, really like about ATYCLB, something that sets it apart, it's that it does a terrific job of balancing really depressing scenarios with uplifting arrangements. It's comforting. It became the 9/11 album for a reason. It's not terribly complex, but that album makes me feel like a million bucks sometimes. I've had some awful days when I've really wanted to hear it.

 

[cobl04]

That's why I'll always care for the album more than most. I can't think of any other album that makes me feel as positive, I don't care if people shit on it for being simple or bland or whatever. Means a hell of a lot to me.

 

[bono_212]

I heard Stuck on the radio for the first time in quite a whole, the other day. It was a weird listen for me, like I was hearing the lyrics for the very first time, or something. Just got me really emotional, thinking about the fact that it's not a vague song, that he's singing directly to a friend.

That album is always going to be very special to me, I'm so very glad it exists.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

There's a great lyric from Kurt Vile's album that talks about that. "Feeling bad... In the best way..."

Happy free confused and lonely in the best way.

 

[iron yuppie]

My top five post punk era U2 songs (I'll define it as before Unforgettable Fire):

5. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock I don't pretend to know what the hell this song is about, but the guitar work is among Edge's best from this era, especially in the transition from the mechanical lead riff to that ferocious post-punk breakdown toward the end of the song. The rhythm section is in fine form as well, giving this track a punch that few other early tracks match.

4. Tomorrow Later heart-on-sleeve songs like Sometimes You Can't Make It wish they had as much resonance as this gem. The build from the violins to the stampeding outro is paced brilliantly, and Bono's impressionistic lyrics ("there's a black car parked at the side of the road") capture a young man's fear and grief convincingly. It's a damn shame they abandoned the style of this and Drowning Man so early in their career.

3. Cry / Electric Co. Blistering guitar work from Edge sets this track apart, and in the early live versions the amateurishness is endearing: just four guys rocking out with barely any pretension.

2. Like a Song... A mission statement for the early years - the sense of song as a mandate for change - delivered with as much fire as the band has ever mustered; hell, even Larry sounds like he's going to split the drums. The stinging guitar tone complements the urgent pace and vocal delivery beautifully.

1. New Year's Day This one track embodies everything that made U2 great: the passion, the rawness, the sense of unity in the face of conflict. And even with all the rhetoric about looking for hits, they have rarely surpassed this song's infectiousness.

 

[cobl04]

 

[IWasBored]

Nice inclusion of Tomorrow. Vastly underrated. Wish I could see New Year's Day as something other than overrated and overplayed, but it's exactly a song like that I have in mind any time I say I don't like U2 anymore.

 

[djerdap]

That's scary. My list would be exactly the same.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Good list. I'd sub in IWF for Electric Co. (never truly connected with Electric Co.), and I'd toss on Out Of Control, Stories For Boys, Gloria, SBS, and Two Hearts for a nice little top 10 there.

Baby, you got the '2 goin!

 

[djerdap]

I'd personally put Sunday Bloody Sunday, Drowning Man, Rejoice, Another Time Another Place (such an underrated song - Edge's guitar solo and Bono's random mix of Bongolese and German are fantastic) and October (although Twilight could creep in as well) to round up the top 10.

 

[iron yuppie]

I'd personally put Sunday Bloody Sunday, Drowning Man, Rejoice, Another Time Another Place (such an underrated song - Edge's guitar solo and Bono's random mix of Bongolese and German are fantastic) and October (although Twilight could creep in as well) to round up the top 10.

Twilight would make my top ten as well. The riff in that one drives home how good Edge was in those early days; it's simple but has a ton of character and angularity that something like Crazy Tonight completely lacks.

Drowning Man is a favorite as well. For me the first five songs of War are the best side of music they have ever recorded.

 

[lazarus]

OMG guyz is this like U2 list thread nowwww

 

[iron yuppie]

OMG guyz is this like U2 list thread nowwww

How about another U2 list!!! (I've been listening to a random U2 mix while running lately)

My top five U2 songs of the 21st Century:

5. Breathe. Takes a lot of chances but connects solidly on most of them; the semi-coherent lyrics make sense with Bono's frantic cadence, and the cello adds a nice bit of understated flair. It's confident but not over-reaching, which is something of a rare occurrence on 2000s tracks.

4. Fast Cars. Easily the best song of the Bomb era - it has a great deal of character against the sterility of Bomb itself. Catchy as hell and reminds me of a more jubilant version of The Cure's "The Blood."

3. Beautiful Day. Perhaps oversold in the context of their whole career, but a hell of a cathartic song regardless. The sentimentality works because it's simple: the "what you don't have" bit at the end is one of my favorite Bono lyrics from any era. A nice bonus is Edge's backing howl.

2. Moment of Surrender. Atmospheric and soul-searching with a compelling down-tempo groove, Eno's little ambient parts really lift this track, as does Bono's impassioned vocal performance. Even at seven minutes it leaves you wanting more, which is a hell of an accomplishment.

1. The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Should be mentioned among U2's best-ever songs. It moves between understated and explosive seamlessly and makes a direct hit in evoking a sense of desire for something out of reach. You have to wonder what could have been had U2 followed the direction this song pointed toward.

 

[lazarus]

Top 3 U2 songs post-No Line On The Horizon:

1. Soon
2. Invisicock

Do I have to list 3?

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Mercy, COBL, No Line title track, MOS, and something else for top 5 U2 of this century. Maybe BD or Stuck.

 

[lazarus]

Mercy, COBL, No Line title track, MOS, and something else for top 5 U2 of this century. Maybe BD or Stuck.

For reals, I'd agree with those first four, and then probably Fast Cars.

 

[djerdap]

Yeah, The Ground Beneath Her Feet is the best.

Don't particularly care for the rest.

 

[bono_212]

Probably some order of Walk On, Stuck, Kite, Ground and Unknown Caller.

 

[LemonMelon]

Ground Beneath Her Feet, Stateless, Moment of Surrender, COBL, Beautiful Day.

 

[IWasBored]

my top 5 would be something like the first 5 songs off atyclb if you swapped out elevation for breathe.

Ground beneath her feet is really that well-liked? I always thought of it as a mediocre b-side that only people from this place knew about. I'm pretty sure I listened to it once or twice and thought that was enough, because I don't remember at all what the song sounds like.

 

[LemonMelon]

It's not a b-side, it was a single and had a video.

And yeah, it dominates most 00s polls on this site, and for good reason. I wish they would go back to making music like that instead of knockoff U2 pop garbage like Krazy Tonite. A mature sound like that would suit them better at this point in their career.

 

[djerdap]

It features a beautiful organ riff, fantastic guitar work from The Edge, great climax and a band that actually sounds completely unburdened and comfortable in their own skin.

 

[Axver]

Alright then, top five pre-1984 U2 songs:

1. New Year's Day
2. Gloria
3. The Electric Co.
4. Twilight
5. Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop?)

That's a third of my top fifteen U2 songs, in fact. Every single one sounds as fresh as the first time I heard them. I understand people being a bit over songs like SBS, but those five songs haven't weakened a bit from overplay. And by god did I overplay them a decade ago.

And top five 2000s U2 songs:

1. Electrical Storm
2. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
3. Native Son
4. Fez-Being Born
5. No Line on the Horizon II

Literally none of which are in my top thirty.

 

[djerdap]

If there is one song that absolutely never gets old for me and I could listen to it any time, it's New Year's Day.

 

[IWasBored]

It's not a b-side, it was a single and had a video.

And yeah, it dominates most 00s polls on this site, and for good reason. I wish they would go back to making music like that instead of knockoff U2 pop garbage like Krazy Tonite. A mature sound like that would suit them better at this point in their career.

Crazy Tonight is garbage, but I had no idea of any of the other stuff. I recognize the title, but I have absolutely no recollection of the song. I might have to look for it when I get home from work, at the very least just to see what on earth you people are talking about.